Nanorobotic assembly of two-dimensional structures

Precise control of the structure of matter at the nanometer scale will have revolutionary implications for science and technology. Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) will be extremely small and fast, and have applications that range from cell repair to ultrastrong materials. This paper describes the first steps towards the construction of NEMS by assembling nanometer-scale objects using a scanning probe microscope as a robot. Our research takes an interdisciplinary approach that combines knowledge of macrorobotics and computer science with the chemistry and physics of phenomena at the nanoscale. We present experimental results that show how to construct arbitrary patterns of gold nanoparticles on a mica or silicon substrate, and describe the underlying technology. We also discuss the next steps in our research, which are aimed at producing connected structures in the plane, and eventually three-dimensional nanostructures.